The Trinidad Zoo – by Sophia

It was Sunday and we said that we were going to the Zoo at three o’clock that afternoon.

At first I didn’t want to go because I was scared that the animals weren’t looked after, but when I thought about it and saw the Zoo I changed my mind and decided to be very excited. The Zoo was wonderful.

First we hurried to the albino tigers’ and the normal tigers’ cages, because it was feeding time for them. There was one normal tiger called Adventurous and in another cage was an albino tiger Mom with two albino cubs.

My Dad taking a video of the Tigers while they are eating. Marike is also there.

It was cool to see them get fed and funny, because they had to be put in a small cage – so the people could put the food in the large cage. In the small cage there was a little pond and one of the cubs jumped in. When the other cub came to drink water, he splashed him and even the Mom who definitely didn’t want to get wet, got splashed.

The lion’s cage was right opposite the tigers’ cage. The lioness was very close to the wall and she was so BIG! I have never been so close to a lion before. It was scary to imagine me with a lion that BIG so close to me in the wild ) :

When we moved on, we came to the giraffe cage. Here there were two young giraffe with a poster on their cage that said: “You can feed the giraffe at 4:00.” We decided to first buy some food for ourselves and see the aquarium.

There were not so many fish, but there were many new ones and it was interesting. It was also air-conditioned. There was a very interesting fish called a “Knife Clown”. It is shaped like a knife blade and has dots on its back that multiply when it gets older. It can grow to 3 feet and eats any type of fish.

The Knife-Clown Fish.

My Mom’s favourite fish was the fish that was right by the aircon. She liked to look at them with her back 😛

After the aquarium we looked at some pecuaries (little wild pigs) and a small type of cat and crab-racoons. There was a cage for a type of water animal with many ducks in as well. There was very dirty water in the cage. A sign explained that the water was filtered and cleaned daily, but it still looked very dirty to me. They are not winning the battle.

And then……… the boy lions ROARED!!!!!! My Dad wanted to see this and so did I. We went to the cage and saw them ROARRRRRR. We then went back to the giraffe cage to feed them.

When we got there, there were already a lot of people in front of the giraffe cage. There was also a zookeeper telling us about giraffes. How long do you think a giraffe needs to sleep in 24 hours? And don’t look it up on the internet!!

The two giraffe were brought over to Trinidad from New York when they were very small, so they are friendly and quite tame. The one giraffe will even stick out his tongue on demand. A Mom giraffe carries her baby for 14 months before it is born. He falls very far, but doesn’t get hurt. Within a few hours he is ready to run around with his mother.

We bought some special treats at the shop to feed the giraffe. The zookeeper said that they were pellets made from leaves. We each had a chance to feed one to the giraffe. The giraffe’s mouth is a lot more slimy than I thought. : (

The lady pointed to the washrooms so that we could go and wash our hands. It was so nice and cool and the water was even cold. I wanted to stay in there for ever.

When we moved on we saw lots of beautiful birds and after the birds there were lots of types of monkeys. Howler monkeys, Capucins and even two Chimpanzee. One chimpanzee had a cup and pushed a button and water came out of a pipe into his cup. After he filled it, he drank from the cup.

And their were two UGLY looking Baboons so I decided I’d rather go and look at the cute Otters. They were playing in their waterfall and one slipped down a special slide in their cage. It was possible to see them underwater through another window, but we didn’t go there until later.

The Otter sliding down the slide.

We moved onto the crocodile looking things. My Mom said that they were not crocodiles, so I have to use their proper name : Kaymans. Did they have long teeth? Yesss! Did they stay very still? Yesss! Did they look like little crocodiles? Yesss!! Were they crocodiles? Noooo! L (Because my Mom said so.)

Well, after all that, there was an Ant-eater!! The people at the Zoo gave him a termite nest at feeding time. (Have I ever told you that there are a lot of termite nests so he has free food?!)J He is sooo cute and it was amazing to SEE an ACTIVE Ant-eater eating termites with his long tongue!!!

I am sorry that this photo of the anteater is so dark. We could see it much better.

Karin J and I went ahead to the Reptile House.

There were snakes and a Komodo dragon that was shedding its skin, revealing very bright colours underneath.

There was also a HUGE albino snake and it looked as if it had eaten something big. This must be why you can’t teach a snake tricks. As soon as they are fed, they fall asleep.

Now, the Zoo was busy closing and it was time to go home. I enjoyed the Zoo very much!!!

OKaaaay…… for those of you who were not disobedient and looked up on the internet…. A giraffe sleeps for the amazing total of ……. wait for it………20 minutes a day! : 0